Game playing and fluctuations in emotional climate

The inclusion of games in mathematics programmes is widely believed to foster the enjoyment of mathematics. The focus of this paper is on fluctuations in emotional climate during the playing of whole-class mathematics games. A multimethod approach drawing on the sociology of emotions was employed to explore changes in the classroom emotional climate that were associated with game playing. The event-oriented inquiry was conducted with two teachers and a class of 10- to 13-year-olds in a New Zealand classroom during mathematics sessions. Over a series of eight mathematics lessons, there were three noticeable fluctuations in emotional climate, all of which occurred during whole-class games. Our analysis of these three events identified a successful interaction with dramatic emotional energy associated with a positive emotional climate, a successful interaction with undramatic emotional energy associated with positive emotional climate, and an unsuccessful interaction associated with negative emotional climate with interactional repair. The third event also illustrated how the incomplete nature of a game’s rules can provide an opportunity for a negative emotional climate to be associated with game playing. The taken-for-granted wisdom that whole-class mathematics games can enhance emotional aspects of a classroom learning environment is supported by some of our evidence.

     

The humanist moment

In “The Humanist Moment,” Chris Higgins sets out to recover a tenable, living humanism, rejecting both the version vilified by the anti-humanists and the one sentimentalized by the reactionary nostalgists. Rescuing humanism from such polemics is only the first step, as we find at least nine rival, contemporary definitions of humanism. Which movement or theory is the real humanism? Higgins contends that we can reconstruct a critical, dialectical humanism from the very tensions in these conceptions. On this view, humanism is neither a theory nor a movement, but a moment, a specific intervention evincing characteristic sensibilities, enabling us to navigate through one of a number of recurring dead spots in the life of culture. Higgins outlines four ongoing human dialectics whose vibrant center the humanist helps us regain: genuine hope/acceptance in the face of both fantasy and cynicism; combined awareness of our connectedness and distinctiveness rejecting both dogmatic universalizing and particularizing discourses; and humane learning as distant from scholasticism as it is from anti-intellectualism. An entire section is devoted to the fourth dialectic, showing how humanism has appeared as a corrective both to historicism and to presentism, helping us reconnect with the untimely, living voice of tradition.     

Software for calculating blood lactate endurance markers

Abstract

Blood lactate markers are used as summary measures of the underlying model of an athlete's blood lactate response to increasing work rate. Exercise physiologists use these endurance markers, typically corresponding to a work rate in the region of high curvature in the lactate curve, to predict and compare endurance ability. A short theoretical background of the commonly used markers is given and algorithms provided for their calculation. To date, no free software exists that allows the sports scientist to calculate these markers. In this paper, software is introduced for precisely this purpose that will calculate a variety of lactate markers for an individual athlete, an athlete at different instants (e.g. across a season), and simultaneously for a squad.     

The effects of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) ingestion on high intensity cycling capacity

Abstract

Ten healthy, non-cycling trained males (age: 21.2 ± 2.2 years, body mass: 75.9 ± 13.4 kg, height: 178 ± 6 cm, [Vdot]O_2PEAK: 46 ± 10 ml · kg^?1 · min^?1) performed a graded incremental exercise test, two familiarisation trials and six experimental trials. Experimental trials consisted of cycling to volitional exhaustion at 100%, 110% and 120% W_PEAK, 60 min after ingesting either 0.3 g · kg^?1 body mass sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃) or 0.1 g · kg^?1 body mass sodium chloride (placebo). NaHCO₃ ingestion increased cycling capacity by 17% at 100% W_PEAK (327 vs. 383 s; P = 0.02) although not at 110% W_PEAK (249 vs. 254 s; P = 0.66) or 120% W_PEAK (170 vs. 175 s; P = 0.60; placebo and NaHCO₃ respectively). Heart rate (P = 0.02), blood lactate (P = 0.001), pH (P < 0.001), [HCO₃ ^?], (P < 0.001), and base excess (P < 0.001) were greater in all NaHCO₃ trials. NaHCO₃ attenuated localised ratings of perceived exertion (RPE_L) to a greater extent than placebo only at 100% W_PEAK (P < 0.02). Ratings of abdominal discomfort and gut fullness were mild but higher for NaHCO₃. NaHCO₃ ingestion significantly improves continuous constant load cycling at 100% W_PEAK due to, in part, attenuation of RPE_L.